>Geography
Dr. James Abbott
Assistant Professor of Geography
office: H347
email: jamesa@nipissingu.ca
tel: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4143
fax: (705) 474-1947
Education:
PhD, Duke University
MSc, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
BSc, Dalhousie University
Research:
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Fishermen on Zambezi River. The area behind them is normally under water during the flood season. Fishing is done from dugout canoes with gill nets. |
I am interested in decisions people make (also known as livelihood strategies) to use resources in highly variable environments. Variability in this context can mean environmental variability, but also social, political and economic variability as well. Within livelihood strategies, I am especially interested in the role fishing plays as a source of food and income. My geographic focus has been sub-Saharan Africa.
Courses:
- GEOG 2136 Cultural Geography
- GEOG 2137 Social Geography
- GEOG 2406 Regional Geography of Canada
- GEOG 3067 Regional Geography of Africa
- GEOG 4437 Hazards Geography
Current & Future Research:
How environmental change is perceived at the local level
Inhabitants of an area are often aware of changes in their environment, such as the differences in the numbers and types of animal and plant species. This has led me to two questions:
- How do people perceive environmental change, and what cause and effect linkages do they use to explain change?
- Can local environmental knowledge be used to complement and refine current scientific understanding of environmental change?
I plan to address these questions by examining local perceptions of annual hatching events of the shadfly in lakeshore areas of Lake Nipissing and Lake Huron. Every spring, millions of shadflies emerge for approximately a week to breed and then die. However, their timing and abundance does vary between years. This provides an opportunity to survey inhabitants about their perceptions of trends in shadfly occurrences, as well as the apparent causes of variation. This research is supported by a Nipissing University Start-Up Research Grant.
Using market data to determine levels of resource biomass and exploitation
Many of the world's fisheries are non-commercial, with large numbers of fishers using different methods at different levels. Standard survey methods are not designed to account for diversity in exploitation or high variability in the biomass itself.
I am exploring the possibility of using fish markets as a means of collecting reliable fisheries exploitation and biomass data. My case study is a fish market, in Katima Mulilo, Namibia, located near the Zambezi River in sub-Saharan Africa. This research was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Doctoral Fellowship Grant, as well as assistance from the World Wide Fund for Nature and Duke University.
Human-environment interactions in post-conflict regions
Conflicts negatively affect society and nature in several ways. The end of a conflict is undoubtedly a positive event, however it opens up several important challenges, especially in areas where inhabitants are highly dependent on natural resources. The environmental, political, economic and demographic changes that occur before, during and after a conflict result in a changes to livelihood strategies and the institutions or 'rules' that determine access to and use of natural resources.
I hope to explore the institutional dimension of post-conflict livelihoods in a stretch of river shared by Angola and Namibia. Angola emerged from 28 years of civil war in 2002, and has since experienced double-digit rates of economic growth. How has these processes changed the way people on both sides of the river make a living? What does this imply for making livelihoods as sustainable as possible?
Publications:
Abbott, J., Campbell, L. 2009. Environmental Histories and Emerging Fisheries Management of the Upper Zambezi River Floodplains. Conservation & Society. (7)2: 83-99.
Abbott, J., Campbell, L. Hay, C., Næsje, T., and Purvis, J. 2007. Vendor Livelihoods in the Upper Zambezi River Floodplains. Human Ecology. 35(5): 559-574.
Abbott, J., Campbell, L. Hay, C., Næsje, T., Ndumba, A. and Purvis, J. 2007. Rivers as Resources, Rivers as Borders: Community vs. Transboundary Management of Fisheries in the Upper Zambezi River Floodplains. The Canadian Geographer. 51(3): 280-302.
Campbell, L., Gray, N., Meletis, Z., Abbott, J. and Silver, J. 2006. Gatekeepers and keymasters: dynamic relationships of access in geographical field work. The Geographical Review 96 (1): 97-121.
Murphy, C. and Abbott, J. 2006. A description and preliminary assessment of participatory development policies and application in Namibia. Tanzania Journal of Development Studies. 6(1): 47-56.